MAKE YOUR EMAIL SMARTER
Experience + Expertise = Smarter Email Starts Here
Businesses Improve Email Deliverability but Open Rates Fall by 9%
MarketingProfs has just reported email open rates fell to 17% on average in 2010, down 9 percentage points from 26% in 2009, according to a report from Harte-Hanks. That is a decrease of over one-third in only a year. And that is significant. The report is based on metrics from 3 billion emails, meaning in 2009, 780 million email were opened. And in 2010, only 510 million were. Adding up to 270 million fewer emails! 270 […]
Assessing Your Email Marketing Program YTD
It’s that time of year, time to take stock of the past year, assess your email marketing program, and plan for a better year ahead. OK, really it’s not. It’s July. But halfway through the year is a perfect time to look back and learn. Six months gives you enough data to look for trends and react to them. Ideally you’re following email marketing best practices and conducting ongoing assessments. Spotting trends, however, requires a few […]
Email Marketing Best Practices: Remember You’re Always Branding. Always.
Here’s something to think about: What if the first impression made by your email isn’t made by your email? What if your first impression happens without your email ever being opened? You’re always branding. But your emails aren’t always getting opened. What does that mean? Rethink your email marketing best practices in such a way that even if recipients don’t open your email, make sure your From and your subject line are doing something for you. […]
More People Subscribe When Engaged
Looking through some old notes, I came across this MarketingSherpa chart from May showing the most effective tactics for growing your in-house email list. It resonated anew with me today because of the response to a post published by our CEO at the Email Critic blog. Marco’s post argued for having more than a simple sign up box on your website for encouraging subscriptions. At ClickMail we encourage our email marketing clients to remember that an […]
Email Marketing Best Practices: Always Treat Them Like Real People
Although Kara Trivunovic is being a little tongue-in-cheek in her EmailInsider post on why marketers should send email birthday greetings, one sentence in here really gave me pause. Kara cites examples of her clients getting appreciative notes upon receiving a birthday email, including this one: “You can’t know how much this means to me. This is the first year I am celebrating my birthday since my wife passed away. It put a smile on my face, […]
Know the Difference: Web Coding vs. Email Coding
Sure your designer can make your website wow like a coding whiz, but when it comes to email design, those coding skills will definitely need a little adjustment. Sometimes the best email rendering tool is a little HTML knowledge. Watch out for ugly emails that render nothing like you wanted by knowing the difference between what works on a web page vs. what works in an email. Below are two commonly misunderstood differences between website and […]
Asking for Addresses at Every Touch Point
These days, people can find you any number of ways. They might type a search term into Google and find your website or your blog. They might see a posting on a friend’s Facebook wall and find you that way. A tweet might lead them to your store or home page. Or maybe a YouTube video gets shared and they learn about you that way. It’s a bonanza, having all the new ways to get introduced […]
Email Marketing Best Practices: Email Engages Your Audience!
Are your email marketing best practices engaging? If you’re thinking email doesn’t engage, social media does, we have news for you. According to a Customer Engagement Report Summary, companies reported the following methods as most likely to increase online engagement with customers: * Email newsletters 72% * Presence on social networks 48% * Micro-blogging (for example, Twitter) 46% Perhaps these statistics again emphasize the […]
The Big Email Differentiator: Content
The good news is, email isn’t going away any time soon. The bad news is, email isn’t going away any time soon. That’s bad news because that means your competitors are likely still big users of email marketing, just as you are. And that means more competition for attention in the inbox. Not only are you up against your competitors in the inbox, but everyone else as well. You might be selling dress shoes and think […]